How the Houthis’ Zaydi heritage influences their strikes in Iran
The Houthis are heirs to a 1,000-year-old Zaydi imamate that ruled northern Yemen on and off until the modern state was established in 1962.
The Houthis, a militant group in Yemen, are not merely Iranian-backed proxies, but rather descendants of a 1,000-year-old Zaydi imamate that governed northern Yemen intermittently until the creation of the modern state in 1962. Zaydism, the sect's belief, posits that authority lies with the Prophet's bloodline, not with elected officials.
A video explanation by Baraa Shiban, a former Yemeni National Dialogue member now in exile, reveals how the group's leader, Hussein al-Houthi, integrated Zaydi Shia Islam with revolutionary doctrine after a 1995 visit to Iran, thereby creating a militia similar to Hezbollah. The movement seized Sanaa in 2014, a decade after al-Houthi's death.
Rather than replacing the Yemeni state, the Houthis weakened it, placing a "supervisor" over each ministry and neighborhood, extorting businesses, indoctrinating citizens, and conscripting children as fighters. Today, they control the majority of Yemen's populace and are situated along one of the world's busiest maritime routes.
Written by urgent.news from Semafor's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
